Painted Redstart, Mt. Charleston, Nevada

Photographing a Painted Redstart in Fletcher Canyon in the Mount Charleston area of southern Nevada was a treat. It sealed the day for the warblers for sure!

I headed up to Fletcher Canyon primarily because of a hope for great opportunities to photograph birds. If you didn’t know, up Fletcher Canyon is a natural spring fed stream. Later in the summer it dries up quite a bit so you can often find large numbers of birds concentrated in a small area as they come into the water. This is great for birdwatching and for photography! Unfortunately this year there seem to be quite a few more people and dogs up there hiking than in previous years, so the birds are flushed a bit more frequently.

Friday morning I was treated to great views of a Wilson’s Warbler, Black-throated Grey Warbler, and lastly a Painted Redstart. I saw the first two birds quite quickly after I arrived, but due to rain the previous day, and a bit of wind I saw very few birds, and heard mainly nuthatches, and chickadees with little other variety. I saw a few robins, and possibly a Cordarellian Flycatcher (he would never sing, or show much of himself) as well but little else. I was about to give up the enterprise and head elsewhere when I saw the Painted Redstart. I don’t know how rare this bird actually is for the area, but I had never seen the species previously in the state of Nevada, so I stayed and was able to get the picture below.

Note to birdwatchers, I saw quite a larger number of species and numbers of birds last week but nothing unusual, so I didn’t post about it. Returning this week I saw far fewer species and numbers, but I believe this was because of the rain and wind previously so I bet larger numbers of birds will be present in the area if you head up this week. I was hoping for a Red-faced Warbler as this has been seen in the area previous at this time of year a few years ago. I was hoping to find it a common rare visitor to this area, but so far no luck! The area does seem to be quite good for warblers though so enjoy if you go!